The Contemporary History Institute at Ohio University is sponsoring a major conference focusing on "Democracy in Post Soviet Russia," Friday, April 5, in the Ohio University Inn Ballroom.

Featured speakers will include some of the worlds most prominent experts on the Soviet Union and post Soviet Russia including Marshall Goldman of Harvard University, Michael McFaul of Stanford University, Martin Malia University of Calif. at Berkeley, Peter Reddaway of George Washington University, Vladimir Pechatnov of Moscow State Institute of International Relations, former Soviet-Russian diplomat Oleg Grinevsky, and Serge Schmemann Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and former Moscow bureau chief. The keynote address by Dimitri Simes, President of the Nixon Center in Washington D.C., will be in Irvine Hall 194.

All events (with the exception of lunch and dinner) are free and open to the public. Check the schedule below for details.

• 9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (Ohio University Inn Ballroom)
  PANEL: "Boris Yeltsin and the Transition from Communism to Democracy"
  Moderator:
  • Steven Miner, Ohio University
  • Peter Reddaway, George Washington University
  • Herbert Ellison, University of Washington
  • Serge Schmemann, New York Times (Moscow bureau chief, 1991)
Commentator: Oleg Grinevsky, former adviser to the Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Andropov, and Gorbachev governments; Russian ambassador to Sweden, 1991-1997
• 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. (Ohio University Inn)
  LUNCH (by invitation only)

• 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.(Ohio University Inn Ballroom)
  PANEL: "The Pursuit of Pluralism: Political and Economic Determinants"
  Moderator:
  • Sherrill Stroschein, Ohio University
  • Michael McFaul, Stanford University/Hoover Institution
  • Marshall Goldman, Harvard University and Wellesley College
  Commentator: George E. Hudson, Wittenberg University

• 3:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m. (Ohio University Inn Ballroom)
  PANEL: "Integrating Russia into the West"
  Moderator:
  • Steven Miner, Ohio University
  • Martin Malia, University of California, Berkeley
  • Vladimir Pechatnov, Moscow State Institute of International Relations
  Commentator: Oleg Grinevsky

• 6:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. (Ohio University Inn)
  DINNER (by invitation only)

• 8:00 p.m.
  KEYNOTE ADDRESS (194 Irvine Hall)
  Dimitri Simes, president, Nixon Center, Washington, D.C.

For more information please contact Debra Sullivan 740-593-4362.